BABY STEPS | Severino, 18, went to the Yankees’ Dominican Summer League teams, where he put up respectable numbers. But nothing necessarily jumped out about the unheralded prospect.

By Brendan Kuty

NASHVILLE, Tenn. —Yankees general manager Brian Cashman hinted that he contacted the Miami Marlins regarding a trade for their 23-year-old ace, Jose Fernandez.

But he didn’t mince words when it came to how he felt regarding a report that the Yankees were willing to trade their own promising young starter, Luis Severino.

“Somebody’s lying. Tis the season, right?” Cashman said in a suite at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel, the site of the 2015 Winter Meetings.

Cashman wouldn’t flat-out say he talked to Miami about Fernandez, who’s believed to be available but only for a ridiculously high asking price. Fernandez is considered one of the game’s best pitchers and could win a few Cy Youngs before he retires, despite undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2014.

“I wouldn’t say. It’s not fair,” Cashman said. “But it’s pretty easy to speculate. Under the control of what we’re trying to accomplish: Getting younger, cheap. If it checks off a lot of the boxes, you can assume that we checked off on it. If it’s old and expensive, we likely didn’t check in on that.”

But as for talk that he’d part with Severino, the pitcher who debuted in August and sparked the Yankees’ playoff run? Nope.

Cashman added that he doesn’t believe he’ll deal any of his top prospects, too.

“But I doubt that you would see anything ever here in the near-term happen on those three guys you’re talking about, which is (first baseman Greg) Bird, (staring pitcher Luis) Severino, (and right fielder Aaron) Judge. And we have not offered those players in any deal, if that’s what you’re asking,” Cashman said.